Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Action Comics #872
DC Comics
Johns & Woods

New Krypton rolls on and the cast grows in this issue, as does the action. This issue advances some of the ideas the villains have in mind for Superman and his fellow Kryptonians. We also see that Supergirl’s mother isn’t totally on the up and up either. This issue has plenty of action and really puts Superman in an impossible spot. He’s wanted by an awful lot of people and he doesn’t seem to have a lot of cohorts to help out. In fact, the cliffhanger has some of his friends getting ready to hunt down the Kryptonians.

Alura, Supergirl’s mom, isn’t backing down from her insistence about keeping the identities safe for the Kryptonians who killed the cops. Superman and her do some verbal fighting. While this is happening some of the Krypton military continues to round up potential threats. One of the commanders mentions that if they complete their mission they will be given access to the phantom zone so that they can free General Zod. They refer to this person as a “her”. Smart money is on Alura.

Alura also shows Superman how Brainiac had the Creature Commandos captured on his ship. She tells them how they are all trying to free the people Brainiac had imprisoned. I find it odd that Superman could free Kandor so easily but none of the other prisoners can be freed. I wonder what that means.

Later, Luthor’s plan gets hatched from within the walls of Kandor. Luthor knew exactly how to go after these super powered amateurs. That isn’t Superman’s only problem as the good guy humans are fed up with the Kandor folks and are coming after them. Superman may need Zod’s help afterall.

The issue is packed with new characters. The commandos wake up and get some page time. Add in that Metallo and Reactron play major roles and you have some new players in the main plot. On the peripheral side of things we have Luthor, Brainiac, Guardian, General Lane and even a touch of Doomsday. If you like your comic to jump around and include a lot of players then you have that here.

Perhaps the best part of the comic is the mind games that Luthor plays on Brainiac. The arc may have Luthor as a secondary character, but he seems to steal the show in each installment he’s in.

The artwork does its best to keep up with the changing scenery and the various confrontations that take place, but this is a tough issue to showcase the art skills. Unless Superman turned around and popped his Aunt in the mouth the art was going to come across as light through much of the issue.

I’m enjoying this arc and this issue may be the best one since the one shot special that kicked it off. We have Kryptonians and humans playing the modern roles of the Native Americans versus the Europeans and you have the classic story of stereotyping people based on a small subset. Trust is a tough thing to come by for either side. Add in a nice twist in the plot to get the villains their spotlight and you have a very good issue. What can Superman possibly do when both sides don’t trust and the villains are winning anyway?

4 out of 5 geek goggles